Gender Stratification in Ads

Men have their magazines and women have theirs. You find products that men would typically purchase in a men’s magazine, and the same goes for women. In the data collected from 5 different men’s and women’s magazines: Bazaar, Maxim, Details, Vogue, and GQ, the findings were that most of the men and women posing for the ads were targeted to that sex who typically picks up the magazine. This was shocking, as the opposite would tend to be thought to be true. Men would sell themselves in women’s ads and women would sell themselves in men’s magazines, right? Wrong. The majority of the ads in the magazines were of

Some of the people in the ads were even selling their product in rather unrealistic situations. This is interesting to consider that most people just flipping through the magazine would rarely take the time to think about what the ad is telling them. All they are concerned with is who is in the ad. Rarely would a man flip through Maxim and think to himself, “Gosh, she is in a bathing suit on a ski slope.” Most of the companies in the magazines wanted to send the message to the reader to “buy this product.” But how would they get people to look? Advertising executives know that sex sells, and what is found in the majority of these ads was that these models are drop dead gorgeous and barely wearing any clothes. This will definitely sell their product.

The thin line between the inequalities of the gender roles is slowly being erased. Men and women are coming out of their closets. Slowly but surely, each sex is learning to take on certain character traits of the opposite sex. What society needs to come to realize is that this change is for the better. No longer will the gap between the social standings of men and women be as big as they once were. Women are making their claim to American society as almost ½ (47% in 2000) make up the U.S. labor force, and in 1998, earned 56% of all Associate and Bachelors Degrees handed out.

If more Americans can start to accept this kind of thinking, then the structural barriers that each sex must break down to get anywhere in life, would be greatly reduced. The status quo that exists now is one that is in remission. Those powerful elite that tell us, as a society, what is feminine and masculine are throwing these ideas into our heads, and most of the time we are just going along with it. The advertising executives, the models, and the mag

Some topics in this essay:
Data Analysis, GQ Details, Vogue GQ, Introduction Gender, Bachelors Degrees, Data Collected, women women, ads saying women, fashion ads, wealth power privilege, women portrayed, magazine ads, ads saying, gender roles, society realize, women posing, majority ads, opposite sex,